Angela Knight - Over The Moon

A mercy kill. That was unexpectedly—kind. More like what Halcyon would have done. Not, I would have thought, something Lucinda would do or even think to do. Perhaps she was more her brother's sister than she looked. More than her stunning, lushly cruel appearance suggested. Or maybe she simply wanted to clean up her mess, get rid of the evidence, as they say. But then again, when Beldar died—and he would have done that fairly soon—all evidence would have disappeared with him. I didn't know what to think.

"How did you heal him?" Lucinda demanded, her eyes fixed on me with cool, sharp appraisal.

"I brought forth his light. I think his own light ate away the corruption."

"Ah, you made him glow, did you, you naughty girl." She gave a shiver-inducing low chuckle. "His light or your power? Which was it, I wonder."

Hopefully she wasn't thinking of conducting an experiment. Like having Brindell bite Beldar again or someone else, then Lucinda making them glow to see if they healed. It was a nasty, nasty thought. I didn't like having it in my head.

The hellhound glided over to me. I tensed, unable to help myself, as the great brindled beast sniffed my face, lingering around my mouth, and moved downward. I flinched as it sniffed my crotch. Gee, maybe it had more in common with its canine brothers—or would that be sisters?—than just the "hound" at the end of its name.

Satisfied with me, the creature snuffled curiously at Amber, standing behind me, then rolled out its long pink tongue in a knowing doggy grin as if to say: Ah, so that's who I smell on you .

It seemed uncannily intelligent, those yellow eyes, as if it understood all that had been said. Closing its mouth and those frightening teeth, it swung back to sniff at me once more. How fun.

"Brindell seems to be as fascinated by you as my brother is," Lucinda murmured, and I didn't know whether to be outraged or not on Halcyon's behalf at having his sister compare him to a dog. A hellhound, demon beast, or not, was still essentially a dog. Hell's version of one, at least.

"Perhaps it is the human blood mixed within your veins," Lucinda pondered thoughtfully, her hand resting casually on Beldar's chest, still bared, as if she had forgotten where it lay. "It makes you different. Stronger instead of weakening you as it does to others, so that you have both sides' strength without the weaknesses."

Lucinda turned her contemplative eyes back to Beldar, and her gaze fell to the slow bounding pulse in his neck. It sped up beneath her dangerous attention. "I wonder if your blood would taste of her magic. Or would it carry a hint of the corrupting darkness that almost consumed you? What do you say, Beldar? Hmmm? A little sip of your blood, and then Brindell and I shall leave you."

It was almost funny. With Beldar a head taller than Lucinda, she looked tiny beside him, like something he had to protect instead of something threatening him. But the trapped look in Beldar's eyes, the frozen stillness he held himself in beneath her hand, said he knew the real situation. The diminutive demon princess was something to be feared.

"The process by which he healed was strange, erratic," I said, speaking up. "I do not know how his blood would react in you. And I would ask that you not risk it, Lucinda."

She turned her dangerous, slumberous eyes my way. "You say that in an effort to spare your man."

"Yes, but it is also out of concern for you, Lucinda. You are Halcyon's sister," I said with truthful sincerity. "I would not wish any harm to come to you even inadvertently by my hand."

Her dark eyes, so like her brother's, narrowed in inscrutable thought. "How odd you are. No wonder he finds himself so drawn to you." Then she blinked, as if clearing away her thoughts. "Brindell," she called softly.

The hellhound swung away from me and padded obediently to her mistress' side. Without another word, Lucinda and her hellhound departed.

Beldar sagged against Amber as the door closed. I think we all sagged a little. Feeling as if gelatin were holding me up instead of solid bones, I sank shakily down onto the love seat.

"Not one of my best ideas, asking you to bring Lucinda back," I murmured weakly. "She wouldn't have been able to save Beldar anyway."

"No, but you were able to," Gryphon said. He gazed at Beldar, strode to the other man, and gave him a tight embracing hug. And I realized that Beldar had been Gryphon's friend, too.

"It is good to have you back, brother," Gryphon said, stepping back.

"It is good to be whole once more. And to garner a taste of the bounty you and Amber both enjoy." Beldar's tone was light, but the emotion shadowing his eyes was not. "You lucky bastards."

"Yes," Gryphon said softly, as the three of them turned to look at me—Amber, Gryphon, and Beldar. "Yes, we are. Very, very lucky."

When night fell again, we sat on that same bench in Rockefeller Plaza where all this had begun, waiting for Mona Sera. I sat in my usual left corner, with Beldar seated on my right. Amber, Gryphon, and Chami stood to my left, slightly behind me. And though Beldar sat on "their" side, versus "ours," he still felt a part of our group. There was no animosity, no wariness toward him on the men's part, nor him toward them. Only a touch of sadness.

Beldar was unusually quiet and serious, as if his glib and charming surface skin had burned away with his rotted flesh, leaving him naked and tender. And I… I seemed to be as quiet and serious and as solemn as he. We sat in silence until Beldar broke it.

"I will continue to hope, you know," he said, his brilliant green eyes fixed on the road in front of us.

"For what, Beldar?" I asked, making myself turn and look at him, something I had been avoiding doing up till now. His long white hair and shocking green eyes were as startling and beautiful as always. But the sight hurt me somehow rather than pleased me. Made my heart ache.

"That one day I, too, will become lucky."

Simple words, with not so simple meaning. They stabbed me sweetly because I wished it, too, in my heart of heartsthat he belonged to me. But wishing was just that, wishing. It did not make things come true.

"I do not think Mona Sera will ever give you up, Beldar," I said in a low voice.

His eyes continued to restlessly sweep the cars that passed. An almost-silent sigh lifted his chest. "You are correct. Mona Sera would sooner see me dust and ashes than have you acquire another of her men. She threw Gryphon and Amber away like broken toys, and now pouts like a spoiled child that you troubled to fix them and keep them. And not only that, but make them even better than what they once were. She envies you."

"Me?" I said. It would have surprised me less had he turned and smacked me across the face. "She envies me, her Mixed Blood bastard child?"

"Yes, she is jealous of Amber's and Gryphon's devotion to you. Devotion that she could never inspire. Will never be able to inspire. They served her, a pure Full Blood Queen, out of fear. As do I. As do all of her men. But they serve you, a Mixed Blood Queen, out of love. And they serve you better because of that love. That she will never be able to forgive you for—for making her jealous of you when she considers you less."

It was an oddly perceptive observation, something I, would never have conceived of. And yet that wasn't what I had meant. "I meant to say that she will not give you up because she values you."

His lips twisted into a wry smile devoid of humor. "You are correct. She does value me, as you say, or she would have simply let me rot away. Just bringing me to you is unusual care on her part. Yes, she… values me, and shall do so up until the time my threat to her outweighs my usefulness to her. Then she shall kill me without a blink, without a tear from those lovely cold eyes. Shall you mourn me then, Mona Lisa? Will you think of me as I will think of you with my last dying breath? Or will you have forgotten me long before?"